Homenaje a las lesbianas trans durante la Semana de la Visibilidad Lésbica

During Lesbian Visibility Week, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund honor the lives and experiences of transgender and non-binary lesbians. We affirm that trans women are women and that trans and non-binary lesbians are a valued part of the LGBTQ community.

As politicians and policymakers seek to strip LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, of their freedoms, it is important for us to stand firm in solidarity. This year, there have been nearly 200 bills in state legislatures targeting trans people, with the vast majority of them aimed at trans women and girls. These bills seek to deny trans women and girls equal participation in our communities — on sports teams, in the bathroom, and in the classroom. These attacks on transgender women in society should be resisted with the full force of the LGBTQ community. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

We honor the ways that lesbians throughout history have fought for women’s rights, even when queer women were often excluded from feminist circles. Groups like Lavender Menace in the 1970s fought for lesbian inclusion in the feminist movement, and supported the burgeoning trans movement. Trans women and non-binary people have also always been a part of the lesbian-feminist and radical feminist movements, including non-binary lesbian pioneer Leslie Feinberg. Efforts to exclude trans women and non-binary people from lesbian and feminist communities are ahistorical, morally wrong, and go against the founding values of those movements. 

All women and gender-nonconforming people are affected by issues such as unequal pay, gender-based violence, and discrimination in health care. That harm is compounded for women who live at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities — queer women, trans women, women of color, and disabled women experience even greater disparities compared to women who don’t hold those identities. Our feminism must be inclusive of all women and their experiences. 

Vemos oportunidades para que las lesbianas cisgénero se presenten en solidaridad:

• Afirmar que las mujeres trans son mujeres y las lesbianas trans y no binarias son lesbianas

• Infórmese mejor sobre los problemas que enfrentan las mujeres trans

• Alza la voz y organízate contra los ataques políticos dirigidos a las mujeres trans

• Garantizar que las mujeres trans y las personas no binarias sean incluidas y bienvenidas en los espacios lésbicos

Juntas, estamos construyendo un poderoso movimiento por la justicia de género.

El Centro Nacional para los Derechos de las Lesbianas (NCLR) es una organización legal nacional comprometida con el avance de los derechos humanos y civiles de la comunidad lesbiana, gay, bisexual, transgénero y queer a través de litigios, defensa de políticas públicas y educación pública. Desde su fundación, NCLR ha mantenido un compromiso de larga data con la justicia racial y económica y la comunidad LGBTQ más vulnerable. http://www.nclrights.org

El Centro Nacional para la Igualdad Transgénero (NCTE) aboga por cambiar las políticas y la sociedad para aumentar la comprensión y la aceptación de las personas transgénero. En la capital de la nación y en todo el país, NCTE trabaja para reemplazar la falta de respeto, la discriminación y la violencia con empatía, oportunidad y justicia. https://transequality.org 

Fondo de Educación y Defensa Legal Transgénero (TLDEF) es una organización nacional de derechos civiles que utiliza la educación pública, el litigio de casos de prueba, los servicios legales directos y los esfuerzos de políticas públicas para lograr la igualdad legal y de vida para las personas transgénero y para terminar con toda discriminación basada en la identidad y expresión de género. https://transgenderlegal.org